The Chemical Age: Presenting history with metaphors∗

The Chemical AgeHans Blumenberg has formulated the following argument against theformalized conception of language: if philosophical language could relinquishall its sensual metaphoric, then there would be no need forconceptual history. Language would be a completely rational and transparentmedium for grasping reality. 26 Yet, even the concept of ‘ground’ isnot pure abstraction, but metaphorically concretizes the act of foundinga claim to a secure ‘ground’. 27 I would add that this is not only a matterof the etymological origin or connotation of words. The conceptionitself has a metaphorical structure. For example, there is an analogicalrelationship between the act of establishing a methodologically reliableway towards the research results and the act of building a road. To purifylanguage from all analogical structures would require the abandonmentof all sensuously grounded signs and replacing them with purely arbitrarymathematic signs such as x, y or z. Schlegel thought that it would beimpossible to replace natural languages with this kind of formal language.Instead, he considered grammar to be comparable to chemistry: ‘Philologyis … enthusiasm for chemical knowledge; for grammar is surely only thephilosophical part of the universal art of dividing and joining.’ 28If mathematics was an inadequate model for describing language, inwhat sense did chemistry provide a better one for Schlegel’s purposes?If the metaphor of chemistry is explicated, it is possible to find at leasttwo subordinated metaphors: the metaphor of a chemical compoundand a solution. 29 According to Peter Kapitza, in the eighteenth century,chemistry was defined using the concept of a compound or a mixture (Mischung).According to the previous scientific theory, combustion releasedphlogiston. However, the birth of chemistry as a science was based on theinnovative insight that combustion actually binds oxygen. Consequently,the chemical method did not involve just the analysis of matter downby zero. See KFSA XVI, p. 165. No. V:952.26 Blumenberg [1960] 1998, pp. 7–8.27 Frank 2006, p. 128.28 (My ellipsis.) Schlegel [1798] 1971, p. 228; KFSA II, p. 241. No. 404.29 The metaphors of compound and solution are examples of what Paul Ricœur refersto with his concept of root metaphor. Ricœur 1976, p. 64. If we follow Ricœur’smethodology to analyse metaphors, it is possible that the metaphor of chemistry willopen up a whole structure of new metaphors subordinated to it.Asko Nivala: The Chemical Age: Presenting History with Metaphors. In: Bruce Johnson & Harri Kiiskinen (eds.): They DoThings Differently There. Essays on Cultural History. Cultural History – Kulttuurihistoria 9. k&h, Turku, 2011. Pp. 81–108.89